Film Freeway is now open for 2023 submissions!
Student and Emerging Filmmaker Competition
Debuting in 2016, the Student and Emerging Filmmaker Competition gives filmmakers the opportunity to use cinematic storytelling to answer important themes like “what’s your civil right?” and “speaking truth to power.” The annual short film competition receives over 150 submissions from across the world. An esteemed jury of civil rights, industry leaders, and established filmmakers select the winners, and the shortlisted films are screened during the festival. Now in its eighth year, the competition has continued to attract industry supporters, including a diverse portfolio of funders.
The Emerging and Student Filmmaker Competition is managed by Opal H. Bennett, Festival Consultant.
Prizes for this competition are funded in part by the generosity of Deborah Zipser and Craig Emanuel.
2022 Shortlist: Student Narrative Shorts
The Bond | Director: Jahmil Eady
Pregnant and incarcerated, Aria fights for her most precious connection against a system designed to isolate her. (USA, 16 MIN)
Words Between Phrases | Director: Ben Bernard
When a college student fights for the removal of a whipping post in his hometown, he is forced to reevaluate his priorities and his intrinsic biases. (USA, 20 MIN)
SHIKATA GA NAI “it cannot be helped”| Director: Kevin Kodama
A fantasy romance set in the ruins of a Japanese American internment camp where a young couple attempts to reconcile their relationship as ghosts. (USA, 11 MIN)
2022 Shortlist: Student Documentary Shorts
Quarantine Kids | Directors: Bilal Motley, Bria Motley
Quarantine Kids tells the courageous story of 9 year old Bria Motley in her own words. Using previously recorded audio notes, home video and animation, Quarantine Kids is an honest, poignant, funny, and at times, heartbreaking testimony from a child’s point of view. (USA, 7 MIN)
#BlackAtSMU | Directors: Aysia Lane, Crislyn Fayson
#BlackAtSMU is an experimental documentary that uses an amalgamation of dramatic retellings, experimental explorations, and investigative interviews to explore a critical question: what is it like to be a Black student at a Predominantly White Institution? (USA, 34 MIN)
Healing in Color | Director: Nana Adwoa Frimpong
In a world where Black women are expected to be invulnerable to pain, five Black women confront their personal struggles and explore healing through art. (USA, 24 MIN)
2022 Shortlist: Emerging Narrative Shorts
Color | Director: Carly Rogers
A rookie officer must decide where her loyalties lie when her partner pulls his weapon on a black teen in her old neighborhood.(USA, 8 MIN)
Thoughts Are Things | Director: Christopher Thomas Brown
Librarian Joshua Turner has made it his life’s work to inspire young people in his community with the power of books. When a medical emergency sends him to the hospital, those seeds of inspiration come full circle to save his life. (USA, 11 MIN)
Otis' Dream | Directors: Jason & Blue
Follow Otis Moss, Sr. on election day 1946 through his day-long journey to cast his ballot in rural Georgia. Powerful, poignant, and prescient as today’s struggles with voter suppression multiply.(USA, 15 MIN)
2022 Shortlist: Emerging Documentary Shorts
Bad Hombrewood | Director: Guillermo Casarin
Through compelling interviews with creatives including Phil Lord, Lee Unkrich, and Guillermo Del Toro, and archival footage, Bad Hombrewood reveals the dark side of Hollywood’s history and the challenges Latinx filmmakers face while trying to succeed in the entertainment industry. (USA, 24 MIN)
Reclaiming Our Collective Strength | Director: Lori Webster Fore
The Black church is alive and well. See our faith in action, as we organize the church to reclaim our collective strength on the frontlines of social justice. (USA, 20 MIN)
When We Fight | Directors: Yael Bridge, Yoni Golijov
In the second largest school district in America, 98% of teachers voted to go on strike. When We Fight goes behind the picket lines to show how and why teachers strike. (USA, 30 MIN)
Special thanks to our Student Shorts Jurors
Yucong Chen
An award-winning director, originally from Qingdao, China, and is now based in Beijing. She has a BFA from the Communication University of China, and an MFA in Film and Television Production from the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Her short documentary film Unfinished Lives (2020) won the gold medal in the Student Academy Award. Yucong’s film practice is centered on the shared human experience, from marginalized communities and immigration crises, to interpersonal connections like encounters and farewells.
Sheldon Scott
Born and raised in the Gullah/Geechee Lowcountry of South Carolina in the small town of Pawley’s Island, Sheldon Scott now lives and works in Washington, DC as an artist. His work plays in the intersection of Race, Sexuality and Economics, while impugning mythologies of Black Male supernaturality. He is an alumnus of the Capital Fringe Theatre Festival and (e)merge Art Fair. His storytelling has been shared on the stages of Busboys & Poets, Story District and The Moth, where he serves as host for the DC outpost.
Yvonne Ashley Kouadjo
The Series Producer for Op-Docs, the award-winning short documentary series from The New York Times. Previously she worked at POV, the long-running, independent documentary showcase on PBS. She graduated from Northwestern University with a focus on journalism and political science.
Special thanks to our Emerging Shorts 2022 Jurors
Jon Appel
An educator, filmmaker, and animator based in Philadelphia. His most recent short ‘R.E.S.T.’ was the recipient of the emerging narrative Jury award at the 2021 March on Washington Film Festival and was a finalist in the Best Sci Fi category and the Next Generation Indie Film Awards. He is currently working on a serial titled Good People.
Nina Chaudry
The senior series producer of PBS Frontline, where she is working to expand and diversify its investigative journalism ranks, seeking out new journalists and supporting them as they develop long-form documentary proposals, and as they report, produce and edit their films.
Emily Keating
Director of Development and Education at the Kunhardt Film Foundation, where she to contributes to the strategic vision of the organization, cultivates and sustains funding, manages curriculum development, and supports a community of educators and engaged audiences. Prior to KFF, Emily was Director of Education at the Jacob Burns Film Center. She is an adjunct faculty member in the Literacy Department at Pace University. She received her B.A. in English Literature from the University of Virginia and M.A. in Humanities Education from New York University.
2021 Shortlist: Student Narrative Shorts
CONTUSION| Director: Amin Anari
A teenage girl wants a divorce and is subjected to a virginity examination at Iranian Forensic Medicine Department. (IRAN, 15 MIN)
MIDNIGHT IN THE VALLEY | Director: c. Craig
A candy bar-stealing transient, a hawk-eyed convenience store manager, two bumbling lawmen, and a clerk just trying to do his job all collide in this story about fighting "the man." (USA, 6 MIN)
TEA | Director: Henry Arroyo
A young man is harassed by an undercover cop on his way to buy tea. (USA, 5 MIN)
2021 Shortlist: Student Documentary Shorts
BY YOUR SIDE | Directors: Debbie Africa, Mike Africa Sr.
MOVE activists, Mike and Debbie Africa, tell the story of their young lives, their hopes, dreams and fears--the story of their determination and commitment to never giving up. (USA, 16 MIN)
IT TAKES A CIRCUS | Director: Sarah D. Collins, Zoe Chiriseri Ramushu
Aaliyah, 18, soars on aerial silks. Her cousin Bre, 16, twirls on lyra hoops. The girls dream of escaping the violence that has marred their young lives, and their possible ticket out is Trenton Circus Squad. (USA, 28 MIN)
UNFINISHED LIVES | Director: Yucong Chen
In 2014, 24-year-old USC graduate student, Xinran Ji, was beaten to death by four teens when returning home from a study session. Lawyer, Rose Tsai, advocates tirelessly as his parents and the larger community attempt to understand the senseless tragedy. (USA, 23 MIN)
2021 Shortlist: Emerging Narrative Shorts
BLACK THOUGHTS | Director: Dwayne Logan
Aiming to bridge the divide that exists between embattled Americans, Black Thoughts places viewers within the history-ravaged mind of a broken-hearted Black man, as he contemplates how confusion has kept citizens engaged in an endless cycle of conflict. (USA, 30 MIN)
R.E.S.T.| Director: Jon Appel
In Philadelphia, where Kay is plagued by extreme hours at her grocery store job, a product called R.E.S.T. (Rapid Eye Stimulation Treatment) is distributed to the masses through the televised guise of the Polites. (USA, 25 MIN)
2021 Shortlist: Emerging Documentary Shorts
MIDNIGHT OIL | Director: Bilal Motley
First-time filmmaker and refinery worker, Bilal Motley, struggles to reconcile his love and kinship for his distressed refinery brothers and sisters and his growing awareness of the surrounding communities of color, fighting for environmental justice. (USA, 30 MIN)
SINCE YOU ARRIVED, MY HEART STOPPED BELONGING TO ME | Director: Erin Semine Kökdil
Central American mother’s journey by bus through Mexico, searching for their children who migrated north towards the United States but disappeared en route. (USA, 20 MIN)
TO THE PLATE | Director: Gopika Ajay and Annick Laurent
Restaurateur Moonlynn Tsai and girlfriend Yin Chang struggle to keep their local business alive and serve their community in the face of anti-Asian crimes. (USA, 23 MIN)
Special thanks to our Student Filmmaker 2021 Jurors
Charles Belk | Charles Belk is the President/CEO of DigiSolve. Charles has produced indy films and spec television pilots, as well as the 44th and 45th NAACP Image Awards Red Carpet. He served on the Board of the DTLA and Silverlake Film Festivals.Belk became the face of international media in August 2014 for his wrongful arrest due to mistaken identity. Accepting the role as a voice for the voiceless - Charles spearheaded a national criminal justice reform effort which has resulted in new laws in 9 states to date.
Alison Sotomayor |multiple award-winning independent documentary and television producer, and an East Los Angeles native with countless credits in local journalism. From 1990-2000, she produced the award-winning news and public affairs series, Life & Times, at California’s flagship PBS station, KCET-TV in Los Angeles. As a filmmaker, Sotomayor produced the award-winning PBS documentaries, The Rise and Fall of the Brown Buffalo (executive produced by Academy Award winner Benicio del Toro and directed by filmmaker Phillip Rodriguez, March on Washington Film Festival 2018), Bridging the Divide: Tom Bradley and the Politics of Race (LA Film Festival 2015), The New Los Angeles (Cine Golden Eagle, 2006), as well as the companion educational documentary, Tom Bradley’s Impossible Dream. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she produced educational, multi-media projects online, such as The Chicano Rebellion Reconsidered: 50 Years Later and EntrepreneurFest presented by LATINAFest. She is a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the National Association of Latino Arts & Culture, California Chicano News Media Association and La Plaza de Cultura y Artes. Sotomayor has earned two Emmy Awards, five Golden Mikes, a Telly Award, and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from UCLA.
Monica Wise (MOWFF ‘20 Grand Prize Winner, Emerging Documentary)|Colombian American documentary filmmaker and journalist based in Mexico City. Much of her work focuses on women’s rights in Latin America, exposing human rights abuses through the eyes of female survivors. Lupita, her first short documentary, about a Tsostil Maya activist, is part of the official selection for the following festivals: Ambulante, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Doc NYC, and FICG Guadalajara. She is an International Women’s Media Foundation, Ford Foundation and Sundance Film Institute grantee. Monica’s work can be seen in the Guardian, the Intercept, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, PBS and the BBC, among other outlets. She is a member of the Brown Girls Doc Mafia and leads the Video Consortium Mexico. www.monicawiserobles.com
Special thanks to our Emerging Filmmaker 2021 Jurors
Nicholas Buccola | professor of political science and the Elizabeth and Morris Glicksman Chair in Political Science at Linfield University. Buccola is the author of “The Fire Is Upon Us: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate over Race in America,” for which he received an Oregon Book Award. His writings have appeared in numerous scholarly journals as well as the New York Times, Salon, and Dissent. He is currently at work on a book that examines competing conceptions of freedom in the American civil rights and conservative movements.
Jacques Thelemaque | multiple award-winning writer, producer and director who co-founded the Los Angeles filmmaking community Filmmakers Alliance in 1993 and FA Productions in 2004. He was also Chief Community Officer of Withoutabox.com in 2005 and held that same post in 2018 at ConsciousGood.com. In 2019, he was named Head of Production for the short-lived streaming platform Menace TV.
Jacques was a programming associate for the Los Angeles Film Festival from 2011 to 2018 and has been an advisor, board member, programmer, juror or invited speaker at numerous film-related organizations and events.
Mohammed Saffouri (MOWFF ‘20 Grand Prize Winner, Student Documentary) | founder of Sirius Productions, and he is a Capital Emmy-winning filmmaker based in Fairfax, Virginia. Saffouri has been working in the media and film industry for 7 years. He graduated from George Mason University in 2020, majoring in Film and Video Studies with a concentration in Film Directing. Saffouri wrote, directed, and produced 12 short films during his time in college. Mohammed’s first film to participate in film festivals, The First., won 6 awards in 6 different film festivals, most notably are The Capital Emmys, Washington, DC International Film Festival, The March on Washington Film Festival, and Virginia Film Festival. Mohammed also has experience in producing, He produced 3 short films that were part of film festivals.
Congratulations to our four 2020 Emerging and Student Filmmaker Competition winners and all filmmakers shortlisted this year!
2020 PRIZE WINNERS
STUDENT FILMMAKERS
Documentary
Grand Prize: THE FIRST by Mohammed Saffouri
Runner Up: FEMINISM: THE FIFTH WAVE, by Molly E. Smith
Narrative
Grand Prize: HOME by Adewale Olukayode
Runner Up: PURPLE DICTATORSHIP by Matheus Moura
EMERGING FILMMAKERS
Documentary
Grand Prize: LUPITA by Monica Wise Robles
Runner Up: WELCOME STRANGERS by Dia Sokol Savage
Narrative
Grand Prize: T by Keisha Rae Witherspoon
Runner Up: AN ACT OF TERROR by Ashley Paige Brim
A HUGE thank you to our jurors this year.
EMERGING JURORS
Henry Hayes, 2019 Winner for Emerging Narrative
Lisa Cortes, Academy Award nominated Producer
Jackie Glover, Head of Documentary, ABC News
STUDENT JURORS
Lucas Guilkey, 2019 Winner for Student Documentary
Mary Blessey, Director of MoWFF 2020 Selection, You Asked For the Facts
Craig Emmanuel, Partner, Paul Hastings, LLP/MoWFF Board Member
2020 Shortlist: Emerging Films Documentary
Cover/Age
United States, 24 min, Set Hernandez Rongkilyo
COVER/AGE (United States, 24 min, Set Hernandez Rongkilyo)
For years, advocates have been organizing to make healthcare access a right for all in California, regardless of their immigration status. Set against the backdrop of California's Health4All campaign, COVER/AGE follows two leaders who have been championing the immigrant health justice movement in the Golden State. One is an elderly caregiver who has spent over a decade taking care of senior citizens, in spite of being ineligible for the same services she provides due to her immigration status. The other is a long-time community advocate who has been organizing directly-impacted people towards policy change at the intersection of immigrant, health, and gender justice. As the conversation around universal healthcare continues to gain momentum in the national level, this film highlights the urgency of expanding healthcare access to undocumented people by centering the unwavering voices of immigrant health justice leaders.
Lupita
Mexico, 20 min, Monica Wise Robles
Lupita (Mexico, 20 min, Monica Wise Robles)
In a country where indigenous people are increasingly displaced, their land stolen, where students disappear without trace following police arrest, and journalists are murdered at an alarming rate, a courageous new voice emerges. Lupita, a Tsostil Maya massacre survivor, at the forefront of a new movement of indigenous women. If anyone can change the conscience of Mexico, it is Lupita, confronting corrupt militares, mobilizing her pueblo’s resistance, and cultivating a new generation of organized and vocal Maya activists.
Welcome Strangers
US, 21 min, Dia Sokol Savage
Welcome Stranger (US, 21 min, Dia Sokol Savage)
Every night at 6pm, detained immigrants are legally released from a for-profit ICE facility onto unfriendly, industrial streets near Denver, Colorado. The men and women, most of them asylum-seekers, have little idea where they are and have nothing more than the clothes on their backs. "Welcome Strangers" tells the story of Sarah Jackson, a young woman who searches the streets for these immigrants and invites them into her home. She and a team of volunteers greet them with compassion and provide them with shelter, clothing and help them reunite with their families.
2020 Shortlist: Emerging Films Narrative
An Act of Terror
US, 16 min, Ellie Ashley Paige Brim
An Act of Terror (US, 16 min, Ellie Ashley Paige Brim)
The true story of Virginia Christian, a 16-year-old African American girl accused of murder in the Jim Crow South.
Coffee Shop Names
US, 8 min, Deepak Sethi
Coffee Shop Names (US, 8 min, Deepak Sethi)
Three Indian people imagine their personas as their "coffee shop names," the names they give baristas because their real names are hard to pronounce.
T
US, 13 min, Keisha Rae Witherspoon
T (US, 13 min, Keisha Rae Witherspoon)
A film crew follows three grieving participants of Miami’s annual T Ball, where folks assemble to model R.I.P. t-shirts and innovative costumes designed in honor of their dead.
2020 Shortlist: Student Films Documentary
Feminism: The Fifth Wave
US, 22 min, Molly E. Smith
Feminism: The Fifth Wave (US, 22 min, Molly E. Smith)
Feminism is a dirty word. At least that is how some women see it. It has been weaponized, becoming closely associated with political ties and radical behavior. The media paints this picture of polarization between generations particularly regarding feminism, but these few loud opinions do not make up the whole. In this film, we take a closer look at the evolution of feminism through the generations, reveling a surprising similarity. Are we really different in our ideas of feminism, or is this just a perception? With Generation Z on track to being “most diverse, best-educated generation yet” according to the 2018 study by the Pew Research
The First
US, 13 min, Mohammed Saffouri
The First (US, 13 min, Mohammed Saffouri)
Abrar, a young Muslim American woman running for a school board seat in Fairfax County, Virginia, faces many obstacles during her electoral journey that make her stronger and push her closer to achieve her goal.
Paul Robeson: The Voice of the People
US, 10 min, Kaya and Defne Ceyhan
Paul Robeson: The Voice of the People (US, 10 min, Kaya and Defne Ceyhan)
Paul Robeson was a singer, actor, scholar, and athlete. He was one of the first world renowned black artists and used his stature to speak for the rights of others, combining his artistic achievements with political activism. His activism was a precursor to the modern civil rights movement. Shunned but never silenced, Robeson spent his life breaking racial barriers and fighting for the oppressed members of society in America and around the world.
2020 Shortlist: Student Films Narrative
Home
US, 12 min, Adewale Olukayode
Home (US, 12 min, Adewale Olukayode)
Femi is a Nigerian immigrant who works as a manager at a grocery store in Brooklyn, New York. Over the course of a night, he is informed by a fellow manager that his older brother, Adeola, has stolen a large sum of cash during his shift as a cashier. In confronting Adeola for the missing cash, two brothers question their dissonant life values and realize how different they have transformed from one another in pursuing the American Dream.
Lost & Prevention
US, 12 min, Alexander Etseyatse
Lost & Prevention (US, 12 min, Alexander Etseyatse)
A Loss and Prevention officer have a sense of real regret after facing a moral decision. Messages tend to resonate more when they’re more subtle, subversive, and provoke thought. Winner: "Carl Lerner Award for Social Significance" at NYU First Run Film Festival.
Purple Dictatorship
Ditadura Roxa (Brazil, 23 min, Matheus Moura)
Purple Dictatorship (Ditadura Roxa) (Brazil, 23 min, Matheus Moura)
Yeda, the green-faced woman, sells homemade bread and cookies to support the house where she lives with her sick husband. Through the context of green-faced people, we know the reality of those who live on the fringes of a purple-faced society.
2019 Shortlist: Emerging Films Documentary
Take Me To Prom (Canada, 21 min, Andrew Moir)
Featuring intimate, charming interviews with queer Canadians ranging in age from 88 to 17, Take Me To Prom invites audiences to revisit an adolescent milestone while telling a story of social change spanning over 70 years.
Watch the Take Me To Prom trailer here.
Osama & Ayman (US, 8 min, Sam Price-Waldman, Ben Mullinkosson, Chris Cresci)
Osama and Ayman Abdeldayem are brothers, skateboarders, entrepreneurs, Americans, and Muslims. As they skate through the streets of DC, they navigate growing Islamophobia with characteristic style and humor.
St. Louis Superman (US, 28 min, Smriti Mundhra, Sami Khan)
Bruce Franks Jr. is a 33-year-old battle rapper, Ferguson activist and state representative from St. Louis, Missouri.
2019 Shortlist: Emerging Films Narrative
No Traveler Returns (US, 13 min, Ellie Foumbi)
A young African immigrant's struggles to adjust to life in America push him towards an existential crisis.
Rodgers and Tilden (US, 10 min, Henry Hayes)
An ex-con works to re-enter society after being locked up for an accidental shooting
Towards the Sun (US, 20 min, Monica Santis)
A 12 year old girl confronts her scarring past when she is placed at an immigrant children's shelter for unaccompanied minors in Texas.
2019 Shortlist: Student Films Documentary
After the Silence (Belgium, 23 min, Sonam Larcin)
Having fled his country, David had to leave behind the man he loves. In order to obtain refugee status, he faces having to speak about his secret life
On Mother's Day (USA, 6 min, Ellie Wen)
An intimate look at how mass incarceration impacts a mother on Mother’s Day.
What Happened To Dujuan Armstrong? (USA, 26 min, Lucas Guilkey)
In the summer of 2018, 23-year-old Dujuan Armstrong was serving weekends for a burglary conviction; one weekend he never came home, beginning his mother’s quest for justice.
2019 Shortlist: Student Films Narrative
Tree #3 (US, 20 min. Omer Ben-Shachar)
After being cast as a background tree in his annual school play, an ambitious and imaginative immigrant boy leads a revolution.
2019 Winner, Student Academy Award
Green (US, 12 min, Suzanne Andrews Correa)
Green, an undocumented Turkish pedicab driver unwittingly draws police attention, endangering his community and himself.
2019 Winner, Sundance Jury Award
Watch the Green trailer here.
Esta Es Tu Cuba ‘This is Your Cuba’ (US, 20 min, Brian Robau)
Inspired by the true stories of the children involved in Operation Pedro Pan, the mass exodus of over 14,000 unaccompanied minors from Cuba to America, Esta Es Tu Cuba tells their story through the eyes of one boy, Anton.
2018 Winner, Student Academy Award
Past Winners
Emerging Documentaries
An Act of Worship | Directors: Nausheen Dadabhoy, Sofian Kahn | GRAND PRIZE WINNER, 2018
A Space For Growth (and Cuts) | Directors: Conduet (Maritza Navarro and Devon Thompson) |SPECIAL MENTION, 2018
The Petition in Boots | Director: gleichenhaus, 2018
They Took Them Alive, directed by Emily Pederson | GRAND PRIZE WINNER, 2017
Honk: A Festival of Activist Street Bands, directed by Patrick Johnson, 2017
Seven Dates With Death, directed by Mike Holland | SPECIAL MENTION, 2017
Emerging Narratives
Interference | Directors: Robin Rose Singer, Ruya Koman , 2018
Our Nation | Director: David Mallin | SPECIAL MENTION, 2018
Pagg | Director: Nardeep Khurmi | GRAND PRIZE, 2018
LA OPOSICION, directed by Zoey Martinson | GRAND PRIZE WINNER, 2017
Heterodox HDS, directed by Michaux Muanda, 2017
Honor Council, directed by Scott Simonsen | SPECIAL MENTION, 2017
Student Documentaries
Born to Stay | Directors: Daniela Cruzat, Farrah Lopez | GRAND PRIZE, 2018
Two Steps Back | DirectorR. Kayeen Thomas | SPECIAL MENTION, 2018
When Mother Goes to Work| Director: Azar Kafaei, 2018
A Life Before This, directed by Steffie van Rhee | SPECIAL MENTION, 2017
Unheard, directed by Erin Kokdil, 2017
FEARLESS, directed by Jasmine Cannon, Branden Hampton, and Yingxu Hao | GRAND PRIZE WINNER, 2017
Student Narratives
Crick in the Holler | Director: Ursula Kay Ellis | SPECIAL MENTION, 2018
Life After| Director: Ria Tobaccowala, 2018
Riverment| Director: Shayla Racquel -- GRAND PRIZE, 2018
LAWMAN, directed by Matthew Gentile set in 1875, Oklahoma Territory | SPECIAL MENTION, 2017
Vitiligo, directed by Cliff Notez | GRAND PRIZE WINNER, 2017
Time is the Longest Distance, directed by Bryan Powers, 2017